What happens when your spouse’s care drains your savings

What happens when your spouse’s care drains your savings

Garry Marr | January 11, 2014 7:35 AM ET
It’s the end of the line for you, so who cares if there’s nothing left and you actually owe money? How about the lifelong partner funding the expensive care you require in your last days — their own retirement plans now in jeopardy?

We develop more health problems as we age — so why aren’t more people buying this kind of insurance? Read on

The scenario of a still healthy retiree caring for a dying spouse is all too common in Canada and with it comes a tough moral and financial question — put someone into a retirement or nursing home or try to keep them in the marital home. The cost is enormous physically and financially. Read more of this post

9 career mistakes everyone needs to make

9 career mistakes everyone needs to make

Vivian Giang, Business Insider | January 11, 2014 7:48 AM ET

Getty ImagesWhat if J.K. Rowling had never hit rock bottom, or Steve Jobs hadn’t been fired? 9 highly successful people reveal the mistakes that helped make their careers. During your career, you’ll surely make some mistakes. Although some of them will make you cringe with embarrassment, you always learn and grow from the experience. Read more of this post

The best way to get a book deal? Write a story 19 million people want to read

The best way to get a book deal? Write a story 19 million people want to read

Posted by: Nadia Goodman
January 3, 2014 at 3:00 pm EST

17-year-old Beth Reekles had a really good year. She published two books; appeared on national TV; sold the film rights for her first book, The Kissing Booth; graduated from high school and started college; and earned a spot on TIME’s list of the most influential teens of 2013, alongside household names like Malia Obama and Justin Bieber. And still she found time to watch five seasons of Gossip Girl. Read more of this post

Australia’s national science agency has issued a rare apology to a seven-year-old girl for not being able to make her a fire-breathing dragon, blaming a lack of research into the mythical creatures

Scientists Apologize for Failing to Make Girl a Dragon

By Agence France-Presse on 4:16 pm January 10, 2014.
Australia’s national science agency has issued a rare apology to a seven-year-old girl for not being able to make her a fire-breathing dragon, blaming a lack of research into the mythical creatures.

The youngster, Sophie, wrote to a “Lovely Scientist” at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), politely asking whether they could make her a winged pet of her own. Read more of this post

The Open-Office Trap

January 7, 2014

The Open-Office Trap

Posted by Maria Konnikova

In 1973, my high school, Acton-Boxborough Regional, in Acton, Massachusetts, moved to a sprawling brick building at the foot of a hill. Inspired by architectural trends of the preceding decade, the classrooms in one of its wings didn’t have doors. The rooms opened up directly onto the hallway, and tidbits about the French Revolution, say, or Benjamin Franklin’s breakfast, would drift from one classroom to another. Distracting at best and frustrating at worst, wide-open classrooms went, for the most part, the way of other ill-considered architectural fads of the time, like concrete domes. (Following an eighty-million-dollar renovation and expansion, in 2005, none of the new wings at A.B.R.H.S. have open classrooms.) Yet the workplace counterpart of the open classroom, the open office, flourishes: some seventy per cent of all offices now have an open floor plan. Read more of this post

The Quest to Improve America’s Financial Literacy Is Both a Failure and a Sham

The Quest to Improve America’s Financial Literacy Is Both a Failure and a Sham

BY HELAINE OLEN • January 07, 2014 • 6:00 AM

(Photo: Andrew Rich)

Financial literacy promotion may sound perfectly sensible—who wouldn’t want to teach children and adults the secrets of managing money?—but in the face of recent research it looks increasingly like a faith-based initiative. Read more of this post

How To Be A Better Parent: 3 Counterintuitive Lessons From Science

JANUARY 9, 2014 by ERIC BARKER

How To Be A Better Parent: 3 Counterintuitive Lessons From Science

Excerpts from my interview with Po Bronson, New York Times bestselling author of NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children, about how to be a better parent.

1) Peer Pressure Can Be A Good Thing

Myth: Peer pressure is always bad, just leading kids to drinking, drugs and vandalism.

Fact: The same instinct that makes some kids so vulnerable to peer pressure also makes them better students, friends and, eventually, partners. Read more of this post

100 Years on a Dirty Dog: The History of Greyhound; Greyhound has been busing Americans around for a century. It’s hard to believe that after all these years, the company is still riding high

100 Years on a Dirty Dog: The History of Greyhound

Gary Belsky

Greyhound has been busing Americans around for a century. It’s hard to believe that after all these years, the company is still riding high.

As careers go, Carl Eric Wickman’s stint in the car business was less than auspicious. In 1913, the immigrant drill operator paid $3,000 to open a Goodyear Tire/Hupmobile car franchise in Hibbing, Minn., not far from the world’s largest open-pit iron mine. Unfortunately, Wickman was even worse at selling cars than he was at picking car makers—so the enterprising young Swede abandoned his dealership dreams soon after making his one and only sale … to himself. Read more of this post

Do the Hustle: Entrepreneurs are like con men, but are delusional enough to believe their own fantasies

DO THE HUSTLE

Entrepreneurs are like con men, but are delusional enough to believe their own fantasies

by James SurowieckiJANUARY 13, 2014

Con artists are greedy hucksters who sell us dreams that never come true. But Americans have a soft spot for them. Witness the current success of “The Wolf of Wall Street” and “American Hustle,” films that celebrate (sort of) the art of the grift. Somehow, living through two bubbles in which plenty of investors and homeowners were suckered by sugarplum visions hasn’t dampened our appetite for watching spectacles like Christian Bale duping almost everyone he encounters, including F.B.I. agents, and Leonardo DiCaprio hypnotizing a mark into buying worthless stock. Read more of this post

The Degree Is Doomed

The Degree Is Doomed

by Michael Staton  |   8:00 AM January 8, 2014

The credential — the degree or certificate — has long been the quintessential value proposition of higher education.  Americans have embraced degrees with a fervor generally reserved for bologna or hot dogs.  Everyone should have them!  Many and often! And their perceived value elsewhere in the world — in Asia in particular — is if anything even higher. Read more of this post

We need to talk about TED: Science, philosophy and technology run on the model of American Idol – as embodied by TED talks – is a recipe for civilisational disaster

We need to talk about TED

Science, philosophy and technology run on the model of American Idol – as embodied by TED talks – is a recipe for civilisational disaster

Benjamin Bratton

theguardian.com, Monday 30 December 2013 09.30 GMT

In our culture, talking about the future is sometimes a polite way of saying things about the present that would otherwise be rude or risky. Read more of this post

Positive parenting: Beyond the naughty step; Attempts to go where calm and reasonableness fear to tread

Positive parenting: Beyond the naughty step; Attempts to go where calm and reasonableness fear to tread

Jan 11th 2014 | CHICAGO | From the print edition

IN THE old days parents followed a simple rule: spare the rod and spoil the child. These days less violent forms of discipline are favoured. Supernanny, a television toddler-tamer, recommends the “naughty step”, to which ill-behaved brats are temporarily banished. Yet even this is too harsh, some psychologists say. Putting Howling Henry on the naughty step may interrupt his tantrum; but advocates of “positive discipline” say it does nothing to encourage him to solve his own problems (and thus build character). Some even suggest it may be psychologically damaging. Read more of this post

In Scandal’s Wake, McKinsey Seeks Culture Shift; Touched by scandal, a firm that has long relied on a culture of trust has laid down some tougher rules to follow

In Scandal’s Wake, McKinsey Seeks Culture Shift

By ANITA RAGHAVANJAN. 11, 2014

Dominic Barton is 51 years old, 6 feet 4 and silver-haired, yet he has the countenance of a choirboy. Born in Uganda, he is the son of a missionary and a nurse, both Canadians. But it could be said that the society to which he really belongs is that of McKinsey & Company. Read more of this post

How VCs Spend Their Time. Err, How This VC Spends His Time. “Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.”

How VCs Spend Their Time. Err, How This VC Spends His Time.

Posted on January 5, 2014 by hunterwalk

Lost time is never found again – Benjamin Franklin

“A Venture Capitalist? What exactly is that?” If you’re in the technology industry you can probably answer but as I discovered this holiday season, most of my extended family and childhood friends were a bit fuzzier on the concept. Turns out the best way to explain was to share how I spend my days at Homebrew, the seed fund Satya and I founded in 2013. Read more of this post

The Essence of Being A Quant

The Essence of Being A Quant

Posted on January 6, 2014 by david varadi

During the holidays, a person gets a chance to reflect on the more philosophical matters. In my case, one question that stood out was to define the essence and importance of the profession to investment management. I began to realize that the term itself or even the profession is poorly defined and articulated even within the industry. The first time I was asked what a “quant” was, I simply explained that they were number-crunchers that created systems for trading money. The reality is not far off from this simplistic explanation. But having read and heard a lot of different explanations (and accusations!), the essence of being a quant is to translate any possible unit of useable information for either financial forecasting, algorithm development, or rules-based systems for trading-  lets call this broad class simply “trading models“. This includes (but is definitely not limited to): 1) fundamental data 2) technical data 3) economic data 4) news 5) weather 6) or anything that might be considered useful or predictive. The analytical tools of the trade have become highly cross-disciplinary and come from a wide variety of fields such as (but not limited to): 1)math 2) statistics 3) physics 4) economics 5) linguistics 6) psychology 7)biology. A lot of the common methods used across fields fall in the now burgeoning interdisciplinary field of “data mining and analysis.” Read more of this post

Riches and risk: welcome to the world of tomorrow; Pressures for conflict in a more disordered planet are there for all to see

January 9, 2014 6:46 pm

Riches and risk: welcome to the world of tomorrow

By Philip Stephens

Pressures for conflict in a more disordered planet are there for all to see

The season of goodwill has made way for the new year torrent of predictions. Most are quickly forgotten – mercifully so, given the hit rate of the commentariat. Today’s world spins too quickly for the sharpest crystal-ball gazer. A better way of looking at what lies ahead is to chart some of the underlying forces shaping the global landscape. The outline that emerges is one of rising prosperity and opportunity, and of diminishing security.

Read more of this post

Third Avenue Chairman/Founder Martin Whitman Blasts Nobel Prize Winner’s Work Calling It ‘Utter Nonsense’ And ‘Unscholarly’

Hedge Fund Manager Blasts Nobel Prize Winner’s Work Calling It ‘Utter Nonsense’ And ‘Unscholarly’

JULIA LA ROCHE

JAN. 9, 2014, 6:25 PM 6,101 16

ValueWalk obtained a letter where Third Avenue Management’s chairman/founder Martin Whitman blasts Nobel Prize Laureate Eugene Fama.  “I am disappointed that a Nobel Prize was awarded to Eugene Fama, who studies only markets and prices; and whom, I daresay, does not focus on Form 10-Ks or the footnotes to a corporation’s audited financial statements,” Whitman said in the opening of the letter to shareholders.  Read more of this post

Turning Body Parts — Mannequin Body Parts — Into a Business

JANUARY 9, 2014, 7:00 AM

Turning Body Parts — Mannequin Body Parts — Into a Business

By COLLEEN DEBAISE

Judi Henderson-Townsend has a resolution for the new year: She wants to hit a million dollars in revenue.

It won’t be easy. For nearly 15 years, Ms. Henderson-Townsend, a resident of Oakland, Calif., has been selling, renting and recycling mannequins — a quirky line of work that she stumbled upon, quite accidentally, while looking for a garden sculpture on Craigslist in 2000. Annual revenue for her company, Mannequin Madness, has fluctuated over the years, sometimes topping $500,000 but always falling shy of $800,000. Read more of this post

If Tesco is in trouble, don’t blame the boss; Successful corporate leaders don’t always leave great legacies. Spare a thought for the boss who has to pick up the pieces

If Tesco is in trouble, don’t blame the boss

Successful corporate leaders don’t always leave great legacies. Spare a thought for the boss who has to pick up the pieces

Stefan Stern

theguardian.com, Friday 10 January 2014 09.00 GMT

Every little helps. But for Tesco, the journey back to health will be of the 1,000-mile variety, and for now single steps will get them only so far. The company’s latest results, in the UK at least, were weak. Like-for-like (based on existing stores) sales were down 2.4% in the six weeks to 5 January. “Clearly Christmas was disappointing,” its chief executive, Philip Clarke, said. Read more of this post

Why Amateurs Should Invest in Common Stocks: Buffett Explains

Why Amateurs Should Invest in Common Stocks: Buffett Explains

by DavidMerkelJanuary 9, 2014

There is a benefit to investing directly in common stocks as an individual.  I’ll let Buffett help me explain this:

“I am a better investor because I am a businessman and I am a better businessman because I am an investor.”

My own life is one of having been an amateur investor, and became a professional investor over time.  My mother is an excellent amateur investor, one whose record would put 90%+ of professionals to shame.  I know some great amateur investors, but they are not the norm.  If they were the norm, we would not have lots of financial intermediaries trolling for business. Read more of this post

Why Great CEOs Ignore Their Company’s Stock Price

Why Great CEOs Ignore Their Company’s Stock Price

By Brian Richards | More Articles | Save For Later
January 6, 2014 | Comments (19)

IN CORPORATE AMERICA, we have, to borrow a phrase from Jack Bogle, an abundance of “management,” but not enough “leadership .” Over the past year, this problem has come to a boil — and has shown that we are in desperate need of new types of leaders at the helms of our publicly listed companies. We need far fewer income statement managers and far more business-builders. Read more of this post

Teaching Your Kids to Be Rich; It’s not just developing a work ethic—these days, they need to deal with social media too

Teaching Your Kids to Be Rich

It’s not just developing a work ethic—these days, they need to deal with social media too.

LIZ MOYER

Updated Jan. 10, 2014 7:19 p.m. ET

Getting rich is hard enough. But teaching the next generation how to be rich is tricky, too. More people are confronting that issue as the booming stock market, an improving economy and the success of young companies such as Twitter TWTR -0.09% andFacebook FB +1.26% swell the ranks of the well-off. By 2015, roughly 4.4 million wealthy North Americans—those with at least $1 million in investible assets—are expected to hold a total of $15 trillion, according to consulting firm Capgemini and RBC Wealth Management, up from 3.7 million people and $12.7 trillion in 2012.

Do’s and Don’ts

Read more of this post

Michelangelo’s Sistine Sketch: A centuries-old puzzle focusing on a drawing stored in Florence appears to have been solved

Found? Michelangelo’s Sistine Sketch

KELLY CROW

Jan. 10, 2014 9:43 p.m. ET

For centuries, art historians have puzzled over the meaning of a geometric drawing that Michelangelo sketched on a sheet of paper stored in the Buonarroti Archive in his hometown of Florence. The drawing doesn’t look like much at first glance, just a sienna-brown row of inky triangles and half-moon shapes. Read more of this post

Juan Carlos: Spain’s struggling monarch; Weakened by scandal, the Bourbon king is fighting for his legacy

January 10, 2014 5:09 pm

Juan Carlos: Spain’s struggling monarch

By Tobias Buck

Weakened by scandal, the Bourbon king is fighting for his legacy, writes Tobias Buck

The King of Spain could not have wished for a better occasion, or more loyal company, to mark his return to public life on Monday. Surrounded by the gilded splendour of the throne room in Madrid’s royal palace, Juan Carlos was presiding over the traditional New Year ceremony to honour Spain’s armed forces. Read more of this post

The Mind’s Eye: Synesthesia Has Business Benefits

The Mind’s Eye: Synesthesia Has Business Benefits

By Caroline Winter January 09, 2014

Michael Haverkamp has a marketable mental condition: When he runs his fingers across the leather of a car’s steering wheel, he sees colors and shapes. “If the texture feels rough, I see a structure in my mind’s eye that has dark spots, hooks, and edges,” explains the 55-year-old German, a Ford Motor (F) engineer. “But if it’s too smooth, the structure glows and looks papery, flimsy.” Haverkamp says these hallucinations, the result of a neurological condition called synesthesia, help with his nuanced work, optimizing and coordinating the look, feel, and sound of vehicle fabrics, knobs, pedals, and more. He shares his preferences for each with designers, who then use that information to build cars that are more pleasing to drivers. Read more of this post

Weitz Funds: Keeping It in the Family; Weitz Investment Management has fewer than 10 funds, but Wally Weitz’s long-term outlook and focus on undervalued companies make them all worth a look

SATURDAY, JANUARY 11, 2014

Weitz Funds: Keeping It in the Family

By SARAH MAX | MORE ARTICLES BY AUTHOR

Weitz Investment Management has fewer than 10 funds, but Wally Weitz’s long-term outlook and focus on undervalued companies make them all worth a look.

When most boys his age were devouring Louis L’Amour Westerns or Marvel Comics, a young Wally Weitz was enthralled with a different spectacle—Wall Street. “I was the kid under the covers with a flashlight reading about stocks and bonds,” says Weitz, who at age 12 bought his first stock, General Telephone & Electronics, at $26.38 a share. When he sold three years later, the stock was up more than 60%. Read more of this post

Change Your Intention to Focus Your Attention

Change Your Intention to Focus Your Attention

by Caroline Webb  |   12:00 PM January 10, 2014

With busy schedules and to-do lists that carry us from hour to hour without much time to breathe, it’s rare that we stop to reflect on our motivations. But when we take the briefest of moments to set clear, positive intentions for what we’re doing, the payback is enormous. We can make a remarkable shift in how any assignment, conversation, or meeting feels just by considering where we want to place our attention. Read more of this post

For a More Flexible Workforce, Hire Self-Aware People

For a More Flexible Workforce, Hire Self-Aware People

by Rich Thompson  |   10:00 AM January 10, 2014

Companies frequently complain that it’s tough to find the right people. If, amidst high unemployment, this seems counterintuitive, consider the deep trends driving the mismatch: technology and globalization have transformed what it takes to succeed in business. A new generation of professionals places more importance on organizational values and passion for the work than on a paycheck. Organizations, as Cathy Benko argues in The Corporate Lattice, have replaced hierarchical structures with flatter, more collaborative work arrangements. Amidst all this fluidity, it’s difficult for managers to specify the content of jobs, and the skills and specialized knowledge required to perform them; harder still for aspiring job-winners to offer those. Read more of this post

What good is glue that doesn’t stick?

What good is glue that doesn’t stick?

Randel S. Carlock, INSEAD | Business | Sat, January 11 2014, 3:50 PM

Like many successful innovations, the Post-it Notes story began with a mistake.
In 1968, 3M chemist Spencer Silver’s attempts to develop a new, super-strong glue went awry and he found himself with a product that would stick to objects but could easily be peeled off leaving no residue or damage. Instead of tossing it aside or hiding the error, Silver shared his “revolutionary” product with colleagues.
The product was put in the “what can we do with this?” basket and four years later the company’s new products developer, Art Fry found the perfect use – as a bookmark for his church hymnal. Read more of this post